Welcome to another stream of brand new music, including new music from Kool & the Gang (?!!?!!), Mae Powell, Kasim Sulton, Devo's Garald V. Casale, Dirty Loops, Deafheaven, Herb Alpert, Wolves in the Throne Room and much more! Enjoy!
Here are this week's artists, twitter handles unless otherwise marked:
@iamhillhunter
@minaokabesings
@KoolntheGngLIVE (why don't they have a blue checkmark?)
@PTXofficial with @ATEEZofficial
taurus.woman (Instagram)
@hellothesuperm1 (these guys are mates and friends of indie music)
@KSulton
@Gvc3Casale
@DirtyLoops with @corywong
justusproffit (Instagram)
Darkcave (no socials)
Talizman (check them out on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5q6Xms5Hfletevi6Kugr3a)
trukay360 with Wonndonn (both Instagram)
@HerbAlpert
@BRMadjv with @taylorswift13
@_GuidedByVoices
@melvinsdotcom
@futureislands
@deafheavenband
@JakeBugg
@shanandtheclams
@joyformidable
@WainBright
@JamesMcMurtry
@WITTR_official
+++++++++++++++
I have been watching the developments of the spread of COVID-19 in the south with alarm and disgust. It was all so damned easy to prevent and the leadership of those states just ignored it, or purposely went the other way. The governments of these states have gotten people sick and killed. It's revolting and these people should be put on trial for it.
But I don't live there. I live in California, which has done pretty well overall given the circumstances. We've had mask mandates and vaccination mandates and while they haven't been popular with everyone they have kept infection rates down. We have high counts of people getting sick but that's because despite everything you've heard there is no exodus from the state. We are the state with the highest population and have been for decades. Just in sheer numbers the count looks high.
But in terms of a percentage of the population, California has had a much easier time than the states of the South. Our beds aren't overrun, and the Delta variant hasn't grabbed a foothold here as it has in other places. Hell, our infection rate is going down as of this writing.
That could all change, and in the stupidest way imaginable.
As many of you are aware, it is strangely easy to get an initiative on the ballot in California, and it is easy to get a public official recalled. As a result our governor Gavin Newsom, is facing a recall early next month. This is mostly being pushed by Republican forces - people who don't like mask mandates, vaccine mandates, or anything good for that matter. The leading Republican candidate to replace the governor has said repeatedly that he'd abolish all mandates, like Texas and Florida have done.
I don't live in Texas of Florida on purpose you jackass. I live here.
Texas and Florida have had horrific increases to their infection and death rates. They're out of ER beds. There is a hospital in Florida with an ICU waiting list of over 100 people - that's for everything, not just COVID. Another town is Florida has started water rationing, because they need the supply for liquid O2 creation. You know, for ventilators.
There is a hospital in Houston that now has TWO triage ICUs in their parking lot; one that they're running and another run by the US Military. They're begging medical professionals to come to their state because they just don't have the people to handle everything. The town of Iraan (pronounced Ira Ann) had a positive rate for COVID of 40%. The entire town has been shut down as a result.
And there are people who want to do this to California.
FUCK NO.
The state of California has most of it's Republican base in Central California. That's where Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy are from, just as examples. Thing is, the infrastructure for healthcare is not as great there as it is in Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area. Central California is still mostly rural. There are people who live 100s of miles from hospitals, and in some more metropolitan areas there simply isn't the hospital capacity to handle a large influx of patients.
This is all important because Gavin Newsom could get the most votes and still lose the election. Due to the rules in California we are actually voting on TWO items; 1) do we keep him or throw him out effective immediately and 2) if we throw him out who replaces him? Gavin Newsom has to get 50% +1 vote to keep his job but there are 46 candidates on the ballot to replace him and he's not on it. It's theoretically possible to become Governor with less than 3% of the vote.
There isn't a single candidate on that slate that should be trusted with a houseplant, but the man in front is a Radio Talk-show Host and frequent Fox contributor named Larry Elder, who is about as insane as they come. He wants to get rid of the mandates and do a number of other things that would set the state back decades. He's a fucking moron and has about 26% of the full share of the candidates who could replace Gavin Newsom.
So Gavin could get 49.9% of the vote and LOSE to a man who will get 26% of the vote. It's fucked up but that's the system as it presently exists. It needs fixing but that isn't going to happen in time for this election.
Every living past Republican Governor of California is in favor of masks and mandates. They've ALL gone on record saying so. But none of them are running. The Republican party isn't as sane as it once was.
So there's only one thing to do - and that's to make sure that Gavin Newsom isn't recalled. He needs more than 50% of all voters to vote NO on the recall. This is an off-period election and generally that favors Republicans. But due to the pandemic and the fact that we haven't been trying to hinder the votes of everyone who isn't white, rich and male this is primarily going to be a mail-in ballot election - which favors the Democratic Party.
In other words, who the fuck knows how this is going to go?
Unlike those other states, I live here. I have most of my life. I've lived in the Big Valley, in Los Angeles, in San Francisco. I know the state quite well. this is my home, and no malfunctioning motherfucker of a human being is going to put the lives of my family, friends, neighbors, or anyone else for that matter at risk just because they have an agenda. Not in my state.
I Gavin loses and this man does what he does what he says he will, I'm taking his ass to court.
You want to live like that, there are places you can go. This is MY turf. you anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers can go fuck off.
And because I love you, have another track from Devo's Gerald V. Casale:
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